Help with Hoplon Construction

[Pegasus]

Hi Guys ,
My name is Paul ( Pegasus ) and I run a Gladiatorial Group Here In The UK. My son wants to Do a Gladiator who Is of Hoplite Influence but we dont know how to construct a Hoplon ( Thats not the Correct name is it ? ) Can any body tell me or maybe show me some Drawings on how to do this Please ? any help would be Great .

Thanks ,

Paul .

[Felix]

This site may be helpful, for producing a full size aspis: http://www.larp.com/hoplite/hoplon.html It seems to be a heck of a lot of work, though.

A question remains: did a hoplomachus actually use a proper aspis, or merely some other round shield? The relationship of a thraex to actual thracian gear seems to be wholly imaginary, so it may be possible to use a simpler round shield.

[Pegasus]

Hi Felix ,
Thanks for the Info . As for the Hoplomachus he used a Small Verion of the Aspis called a Parma and with the Thracian you a Correct .

We are Introducing ( Just for the Glamour and because I think That It would look great to have a Gladiator that wears some kind of Hoplite Kit Not a Fully Blown Hoplite but someone with Say : Corinthian Hemet , Aspis, Greaves , Spear , Something along those lines .

Thanks again ,

Paul .

[M. Demetrius]

Greets, Paul,
Well, right or wrong, we're doing much the same thing. Our guy will be outfitted somewhere between a Hoplite and a Hoplomachus. He's elected to get a shield around 24" in diameter, dished, two point grip. It's not as dished as a real Hoplomachus shield (some of them were almost hemispherically domed). We'll start him with a spear, and he'll have a falcata or gladius (we use needled felt blades, and have succeeded in making a falcata, no small trick).

Greaves on at least the left leg, and soft armor on the sword arm. Corinthian helmet.

To complement him, I'm making a somewhat similar outfit, but with a flat shield. It will certainly add to the show to have two "Greeks" fight it out. Nice touch, yes?

[Pegasus]

Yes David I think it will be a good pairing to see , Great minds think Alike .

Cheers ,


Paul .

[Hoplitesmores]

what is the historical way on making them are there any finds of bibliography pointing somewhere on this?

[hoplite14gr]

There is a well preserved Etruskan hoplon in the Vatikan meuseum if memoery serves me right.
Here in Athens only the outer bronze layer exists.

A bronzesmith and a barelmaker gave me the following recipy:

First the bronze outer layer is constucted from "hammered" bronze sheet with adjustmets for the porpax.
After this is done the barrel maker makes woodenplanks and carefully shapes them to the dimesions of the hoplon.
Woods are oak or if you wamt to impoverise yourself olive wood.
This is the most time consumiong and expensive process.
After is is done a layer of sole leather can be pinned with bronze nails and the porpax over it.

If you take the "Chigi" vase as an example then the leather can be "L" shaped only just to accomodate your arm.

Good luck

Kind regards

[Pegasus]

Thanks , This shield is more complicated to make than I first thought .
Does anyone have any Photos or construction Plans to go off that I could use .

Thanks ,

Paul .

[M. Demetrius]

The already mentioned link
http://www.larp.com/hoplite/hoplon.html
is about as detailed and step by step as it gets. No way around it, though, it's a pretty ambitious carpentry project, never mind the bronze/brass dish and leather...just the wood is a big job.

There's three of us looking at that project down here with considerably grim countenance. But as they say, the best way to get something done is to tell a Texan "It can't be done."

[Anonymous]

Paul, you don't really need to make an aspis, if you're creating a Hoplomachus equipage; as mentioned above, you can use a small round shield which is just dished.

If you go to www.vicus.org.uk and click on "The Vicus presents -Gladiators", you will see a photograph of me as a Hoplomachus at Caldicot Castle, using Deepeeka's so-called Greek shield as my parma.

If you want full Greek kit, I suppose you can get away with it for a Gladiator as the Romans sometimes tested established equipment sets against each other or against traditional gladiator styles. You say it's for your son; if he's young (small) enough, the Deepeeka shield would be okay for him, once you've removed the boss. Alternatively, you can get huge wood-strip fruit bowls from Ikea and add a rim. (I made a child's aspis like this, but I built up the shield with rings of plywood first, to give a bit of shoulder-room.)

If you need a full-sized aspis, the link given earlier is excellent.

Hope this helps.

[Pegasus]

I dont need an Aspis for our Hoplomachus , we are recreating a Hoplite for another Project . If you look at our website our Hoplomachus has a Small Round Parma .
Bit Of Crossed wires I think



Paul .

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys ,
My son wants to Do a Gladiator who Is of Hoplite Influence but we dont know how to construct a Hoplon ( Thats not the Correct name is it ? )

This is the sentence that confused me.

I can't find the address of your website in any of your posts on this thread - or, indeed, the name of your group. Wouldn't like to give me a clue, would you? :lol:

[M. Demetrius]

Well, he didn't answer, so here ya go:

http://www.ludusclaudia.co.uk/index.htm

There. All fixed.

[Pegasus]

Sorry , I did'nt check the Forum late last night . Yes I did confuse matters with that sentence again sorry for that .


Paul .